Dick Foran
Dick Foran
Affable "good guy" singer/actor Dick Foran was the son of a U.S. senator. After a tentative stab at a career as a geologist, Foran achieved prominence as a band and radio singer. Billed as Nick Foran, he made his screen debut as a "Paul Revere" type in a surrealistic production number in Fox's Stand Up and Cheer (1934). Signed by Warner Bros., Foran was utilized as that studio's "answer" to Gene Autry in a series of "B" musical westerns; ironically, he also played a devastatingly parodied cowboy star in 1938's Boy Meets Girl. After enjoying nominal stardom in Warners' second-feature product--and incidentally picking up an Oscar nomination for his supporting work in The Petrified Forest (1936)--Foran moved to Universal, where he worked in everything from serials to horror films to Abbott and Costello comedies. In one A&C romp, Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942), Foran introduced what would become his signature theme, the lovely "I'll Remember April." Those who worked with Foran during this period remember him being as likable and uncomplicated offscreen as on; one Universal starlet never tired of recalling the time that Foran invited her into his dressing room then asked quite sincerely if she wanted to play a game of jacks! Dick Foran remained in films and TV as a reliable, pleasantly portly character actor into the 1960s; one of his last films was Donovan's Reef, which starred his longtime friend John Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Dick Foran:
- Donovan's Reef with John Wayne , Lee Marvin , Jack Warden , Cesar Romero , Dorothy Lamour , Mike Mazurki , Marcel Dalio , Edgar Buchanan , Sam Harris , Cliff Lyons , Mae Marsh , Chuck Roberson
- The Fighting 69th with James Cagney , Pat O'Brien , George Brent , Alan Sr. Hale , Frank McHugh , William Lundigan , Guinn "Big Boy" Williams , Henry O'Neill , John Litel , Tom Dugan , Frank Jr. Coghlan , Frank Faylen , James Flavin , Saul Gorss , Creighton Hale , William Hopper , Frank Melton , Dennis Morgan , John Ridgely , George Reeves , Benny Rubin , George O'Hanlon
- Stand up and Cheer with Warner Baxter , Madge Evans , James Dunn , John Boles , Shirley Temple , Ralph Morgan , Nigel Bruce , Stepin Fetchit , Lynn Bari , Scotty Beckett , Ruth Clifford , Edward Earle , Bess Flowers , Si Jenks , Lila Lee , Lucien Littlefield , Wilbur Mack , Frank Melton , John "Skins" Miller , Frances Morris , Jack Richardson , Carl Stockdale , Phil Tead , Lurene Tuttle
Dick Foran Trivia
